How much do stats mean in spring?

As the players continue to get in their at bats and the pitchers start to stretch out their pitch counts, we all start to look and see who is playing well in the spring. It’s human nature. Baseball thru the times has been driven by numbers. The .300 batting average, the 20-game winner, the homer and of course, the K ball. All the fantasy baseball experts are trying to figure out their teams for the 2010 season. Which brings us to players that are hot for the Halos so far this camp. Mike Napoli is crushing the ball. Ervin Santana is throwing the ball very well. That’s just to name a few. Does it really matter what you do in spring? Can it carry over into the season? We used to joke, that I hope a hitter didn’t waste his home runs in the spring and believe it or not, us pitchers use to hope to have a bad game in spring because we could get those out of our system, before it ends up on our baseball card.

Well that brings me to a very interesting discussion I’ve had with players over the years who have both done well and poorly in spring. Baseball is about confidence, so you would think it’s better for a player to be doing well as he enters into the championship season. That’s not always the case. There could be variables in why he is successful or struggling. The Grapefruit League (Florida) is more of a pitcher friendly league, while the Cactus League (Arizona) is generally a hitter